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Human Trafficking

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Sixteen men are under arrest for soliciting sex from undercover sheriff's deputies as a result of a crackdown by the  L.A. Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. The men were arrested for soliciting sex along Long Beach Boulevard in Compton.

Human trafficking detectives also rescued two females who were identified as commercially and sexually exploited children, said Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff's Information Bureau. One of them was returned to San Bernardino County, where she had previously been reported as missing, and the other was transferred to the Department of Children and Family Services to be cared for, she said.

Another two men were arrested on suspicion of felony pandering as part of the sheriff's operation, which was conducted Wednesday, The two men -- 30-year-old Temmy Edia of San Francisco and 26-year-old Douglas Ruff of Long Beach -- each tried to recruit an undercover female deputy to work as a prostitute and are each being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, she said.

"The goal of the operation was to impact the demand side of commercial sex and send a clear message that those who choose to buy women for sex are contributing to the trafficking of human beings," Schrader said.

SoCal Connected's Cara Santa Maria covered this same task force in action in March of 2016. You can watch that story below.

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